Morphometrics and adaptatives aspects in africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera)

The introduction of the African bees (Apis mellifera scutelata) in Brazil and their expansion in the American Continent created the opportunity to study the process of species adaptation in a new environment. In that process, within intra-specific variability, normalising selection can favour individuals that present a better adaptative morphology and they will constitute the most frequent type found in the population. To test that hypothesis morphometric analyses in samples of colonies of africanized bees and in samples of the populations were performed. The development of the colonies was also evaluated in terms of the amount of their brood, honey and pollen. Analysis of the data indicates that more developed colonies are formed by individuals closer to the population average with concerning morphological traits.